


Creature Of The Night

by XylophoneCat



Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Drunkenness, M/M, Meet-Cute, non-hockey au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 11:19:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15095630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XylophoneCat/pseuds/XylophoneCat
Summary: Knocking on the wrong door au





	Creature Of The Night

Sid spent his first few conscious moments that morning cursing every star he had been born under. He glared at his bedside clock, as if the weight of his disgust alone could make it turn any time other than 3am. As he lay there, swearing at the universe, the pounding on his front door only got louder.

“If I ignore them, they’ll go away,” he told the ceiling. But then whoever it is might knock on someone else’s door, and he knew that the couple at 2a had just had a baby, and Mrs Santiago across the way had just lost her husband. They didn’t need to deal with this. Now cursing his overdeveloped sense of duty, Sid dragged himself out of bed and through his apartment, narrowly avoiding crashing into the sofa as he struggled to get his legs under him.

“Alright, I’m coming,” Sid called as he undid the locks.

He meant to only open the door a crack, enough to send whoever it was on their way, but his mystery guest was apparently leaning on the door. Before Sid’s sleep addled mind could process what was happening, it slammed back and cracked against the hall wall. Sid squawked as what had to be at least 200lb of stranger fell into him. He managed to steady them, using the wall to stay upright, and his own strength to hold up- oh god. It was the larger, louder half of the two Russians who lived down the hall, the one with the bad haircut and the gap tooth. Alex, Sid thought his name was, but he couldn’t be sure. They kept to themselves mostly, but sometimes the one with the nice eyes would smile and nod at Sid if they passed in the hall. Sid always forgot to smile back.

He definitely wasn’t smiling now, his arms full of stinkingly drunk Russian.

“What the hell, man,” he snapped. Possibly Alex just peered blearily at him. He said something in Russian, it sounded like a question, and then shoved his bulk past Sid. “Hey, no, wait,” Sid hissed, stumbling after him.

Alex paid him zero attention. He stood for a second in the middle of Sid’s sitting room, and Sid thought for a fleeting moment that he might have realised his mistake and would leave. Alex punctured that hope by keeling face first onto the couch and, after a couple of seconds, letting out a thunderous snore.

“No,” was the only thing Sid’s brain could come up with. “No.”

One of the nice things about three in the morning, the only nice thing about it really, is that generally, there isn’t anyone about to see you make a total idiot of yourself. As such, there was no one to see Sid’s indignant march down the hallway to 5a. He took a second to appreciate the ironic symmetry of the situation before hammering on the door. It eventually opened, the Russian with the nice eyes frowning at him through sliver of space.

“да?”

“Your friend is drunk and asleep on my couch,” Sid snapped. “Take him away please.”

The man’s frown deepened and he sighed, but he opened the door fully and gestured Sid to lead on.

Alex was exactly where Sid had left him, although he hadn’t expected otherwise. Sid thought they must have made quite a scene; a Canadian in his underwear and a Russian in his dressing gown, both stood over another Russian passed out on the couch.

“Am very sorry for him,” his neighbour said, shoving at Alex’s shoulder. “He get very confused when drink too much. ты должен был позвонить мне, ты, глупый ублюдок.” He directed the last part at Alex, before levering him off the couch and onto the floor, where Alex woke with a start. He said something blurry and confused and the other man laughed.

“What’d he say?” Sid asked, because dammit, if his sitting room was going to be invaded at three in the morning, he was damn well going to be in on the jokes.

“He say, ‘Zhenya, you get tall again’,” Zhenya said, tugging Alex up and leaning him against him. “He think you were me, you confuse him even more.”

At any other time, Sid might have found that funny. As it was, he just wanted his apartment back. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Awesome, you can take him away now.”

Zhenya nodded, manhandling Alex along with increasingly exasperated sounding Russian.

“Thank you for not just leaving him,” Zhenya said when they finally got to the door. Sid shrugged.

“Didn’t have much choice, but sure.”

Zhenya nodded and then he was gone. Sid closed the door and locked it, rest his head briefly against the laminate. Then he reset his alarm for an hour later than it had been and went back to bed.

* * *

There was a soft tap at his door at about noon the next day. When Sid opened it, there was a slightly more awake looking Zhenya stood at the threshold. His eyes were still lovely.

“Hi,” Sid said.

“I come to apologise for last night,” said Zhenya. “I will make Sasha apologise also, but he is being very sick right now and I think you not appreciate that so much.”

“Yeah, probably not,” Sid nodded. “Sorry I was snappish at you, it’s not your fault your friend was a mess.”

“No, no is fine,” Zhenya waved him off. “We do something to make it up to you.”

Sid paused, briefly wondered how bold he could be. And then he figured that after last night, he could at least be a little bold.

“How about you buy me a coffee?” He suggested. “Me and you, no need to bring your friend.”

Zhenya raised an eyebrow, but his eyes were dancing with amusement.

“Like a date?”

“If you want,” Sid said, hoping that his attempted nonchalance wouldn't come off as uninterested. Because shit, was he interested. “You owe me caffeine anyway, for keeping me up so late.”

“I’d like date,” Zhenya smiled, and even though he was tired as shit, Sid couldn’t help but smile back.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr @fourthlinefic


End file.
